Highest Rated Search Engine, Dogpile®, Reveals Year’s Most - and for the First Time, Least - Searched Terms of 2006

December 19, 2006; 06:35 AM
As the “Year of the Dog” draws to a close, Dogpile® (www.dogpile.com), the search engine that combines the top results from all the leading search engines, today announced its most popular Internet search terms of 2006, including "ecards" at No. 1. With an estimated 66 percent of the U.S. online population conducting at least one Internet search each day(1), searches are revealing more insight into the nation's collective interests.

This year’s top ten reflects users’ growing interest in the Internet as a way to reach out to friends through ecards and social networking. Music lyrics and game cheats held strong again this year. Other top ten searches for baby names, dictionary and poetry suggest the search audience looks to Dogpile for more than just entertainment news and uses the site for information that helps them in their daily lives. Retailers and travel emerged as two of the most popular search categories this year, reflecting the nation’s increasing reliance on the Web to shop and city-hop. In December, gift cards were among the top searches as holiday gift buyers turned to the Web to shop.

On the flip side, this year Dogpile is also shedding light on a few of the year’s more unusual inquiries with the first annual list of the least searched terms. This year’s list covers the least searched questions and cities in 2006, revealing the thought-provoking mysteries that keep some searchers up at night, and which tourism bureaus may need to staff up this year.

Dogpile Top 10 Searches in 2006

1. Ecards

2. MySpace

3. Music lyrics

4. Game cheats

5. Baby names

6. Food

7. Jokes

8. Paris Hilton

9. Dictionary

10. Poetry

Dogpile Top 10 Retailers of 2006

1. Walmart

2. Home Depot

3. Amazon.com

4. Circuit City

5. Best Buy

6. Target

7. Staples

8. Costco

9. Bed, Bath & Beyond

10. Radio Shack

Dogpile Top Gift Card Searches of December 2006

1. Visa gift cards

2. American Express gift cards

3. Mastercard gift cards

4. iTunes gift cards

5. Simon gift cards

6. Toys “R” Us gift cards

7. Target gift cards

8. Starbucks gift cards

9. Dell gift cards

10. Walmart gift cards

Dogpile Top 10 Travel Searches of 2006

1. Southwest Airlines

2. Driving directions

3. Travelocity

4. Airline tickets

5. Expedia

6. American Airlines

7. Travel

8. Quantas airlines

9. United Airlines

10. cheap airline tickets

Least Searched Questions of 2006(3)

1. What is a snood?

2. What do snails eat?

3. How many gold medals did the U.S. women win in the Olympics?

4. How much house can I afford?

5. Why can’t we be friends?

6. Why is soil so important?

7. Why is the sky blue?

8. Who created the Internet?

9. How long can a person live without food?

10. What is an atom?

Least Searched Cities of 2006(3)

1. New Hope, PA

2. Montauk, NY

3. Columbia, MO

4. Corpus Christi, TX

5. Anaheim, CA

6. Longview, TX

7. Wilmington, NC

8. Pittsburg, PA

9. Dayton, OH

10. Birmingham, AL

As the Internet's leading metasearch site, Dogpile combines the strengths of all the best search engines – Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask – to provide users a more efficient way to find the best results across multiple search engines. In 2006, Dogpile ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Internet Users With Primary Search Engines/Functions” from the prestigious J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study.(2) To try Dogpile for yourself, visit at http://www.dogpile.com.

Report Methodology

Results are based on searches completed during January 1-November 31, 2006. Any adult content terms have been filtered out of results and category lists above have been compiled from Dogpile.com by InfoSpace personnel.

About Dogpile.com®

Dogpile.com (www.dogpile.com), widely recognized as the Web's best metasearch engine, makes it easy for users to search more of the Web by combining the best results from the most popular search engines. Dogpile.com is part of the InfoSpace Online family of Web search and online directory properties. These products bring people, information and businesses together online to help users find the information they need quickly and easily. InfoSpace Online is a business of InfoSpace, Inc.

About InfoSpace Online

InfoSpace Online is a leading developer of proprietary metasearch technologies and a provider of Internet sites that offer search, local search and online directory services to consumers on a global basis. InfoSpace's family of Web properties includes Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com), MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com), Zoo (www.zoo.com), Switchboard (www.switchboard.com), InfoSpace (www.infospace.com) and WebFetch (www.webfetch.com), which showcase the company's leading metasearch technology and key advertising partnerships with companies like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, Verizon SuperPages and Yellowpages.com. Both online and mobile users benefit from the best-in-class local search experience of InfoSpace Find It! (www.infospacefindit.com). InfoSpace Online also delivers compelling revenue opportunities for its partners, such as Cablevision, through its private-label online search and directory services.

InfoSpace Online is a business of InfoSpace, Inc. (Nasdaq:INSP). For information about InfoSpace, please visit: http://www.infospaceinc.com.

(1) Pew Internet & American Life Project, 12/05/2006

(2) Disclaimer: Dogpile received the highest numerical score for primary search engines in the proprietary J.D. Power and Associates 2006 residential Online Service Customer Satisfaction Study(SM). Study based on responses from 10,787 residential customers of internet service providers, measuring 7 search engines/functions. Proprietary study results are based on experiences and perceptions of consumers surveyed June-July 2006. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com.

(3) Least searched terms were searched a minimum of 50 times, but no more than 100.